
Colorado safety Shilo Sanders had one of his best games of the 2024 college football season against BYU in the Alamo Bowl on Saturday night. Unfortunately, his performance was spoiled by a blowout loss and a premature celebration on a play that resulted in a penalty.
The 24-year-old sixth-year senior clearly didn’t learn from the last time this happened…
Sanders recorded a team-high eight total tackles in a 36-14 loss to the Cougars. His stat line indicates a brutal reality for the Buffaloes. You never want your last line of defense, literally, to be the leading tackler. That means everyone else allowed the ball-carrier to get that deep into the secondary.
Nevertheless, it was a good way to go out for the middle son of Deion Sanders. He will likely be drafted into the NFL as a late-round flier and he finished his lengthy college football career with the sixth-most tackles he has ever recorded in a single game over six years.
However, a few awkward moments from Shilo Sanders’ final game are what stand out.
Shilo Sanders loves to dance!
He made a big hit on the sideline during the second quarter and celebrated with his father’s famous ‘Deion Shuffle’ celebration. However, the play was very clearly going to get called back so the tackle didn’t even count. Everybody knew the flag was going to overturn the result. Sanders shuffled anyway.
Shilo Sanders makes father proud and shows his selfishness and lack of awareness on the same play the entire stadium knew was getting called back 😂🤣 #coach prime 🏈. pic.twitter.com/FY9gblAnes
— ILLwill (@WillERiteSide) December 29, 2024
Less than a minute later, the 6-foot-0, 195-pound safety came up to cover Sione I Moa on a crossing route over the middle of the field. In doing so, he hung his left arm all over the BYU running back and was called for pass interference.
Shilo Sanders did not see the flag. He celebrated what he thought was an incomplete pass with a little dance even though it actually resulted in a first down for the offense. This was while Colorado was down 17-0.
Dis nigga Shilo got me in tears😭😭😭😭#Colorado #CoachPrime pic.twitter.com/ZZJnO1jWq5
— Jay (@Therlbreadjayy) December 29, 2024
On the very next play, Sanders ducked out of the way and did not even try to tackle the Cougars’ tight end. He also got blown up trying to bring him down during the second half which is not ideal.
This exact same thing also happened last season. Sanders taunted UCLA after he made a big hit. However, he was flagged for targeting and ejected from the game.
Now, credit where credit is due. Shilo Sanders stayed on the field long after the game had ended to sign autographs and take pictures with fans. That’s pretty cool.
Tons of respect for @ShiloSanders. Has been taking pictures with fans, including about half of the CU band, for well over 20 minutes. Even saw a few BYU fans in line to talk to him. pic.twitter.com/jwiyLUeIYP
— Lauren Lanier (@lauren_lanier) December 29, 2024
It will be interesting to see where the eldest active Sanders brother ends up getting drafted, assuming he does get drafted. There were just as many embarrassing moments as positive moments during the Alamo Bowl on which teams can evaluate.